Menghang Xia, PhD '93

Menghang Xia, PhD '93
Pharmacology and Toxicology
Group Leader of Systems Toxicology
Division of Pre-Clinical Innovation
National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
National Institutes of Health

Dr. Menghang Xia is a group leader of Systems Toxicology at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health. She received her Bachelor of Medicine with a specialty in toxicology from Shanghai Medical University, followed by her PhD in pharmacology from the State University of New York at Buffalo under the mentorship of Dr. Suzanne Laychock. Dr. Xia did her postdoctoral training at the University of California at San Francisco under the mentorship of Dr. Edward Goetzl.

Serving as a co-chair of Assay Evaluation and Screening working group at the US Tox21 program, Dr. Xia led the major effort to develop and validate a battery of in vitro assays in a quantitative high throughput screening platform. Dr. Xia and her team have developed and screened more than 120 assays using advanced technology and robotic systems, and profiled environmental chemicals on various pathways and targets, such as stress response signaling, developmental pathways, and nuclear receptors. Dr. Xia is an author of over 250 peer-reviewed research articles and book chapters, as well as an editor of two books. She has given numerous scientific presentations at national and international conferences. She also has served as an editorial board member for several scientific journals. She received numerous awards including NIH and NCATS Director’s Mentorship Awards, NIH and NCATS Director’s Awards for Scientific and Medical Achievement, Uncommon Collaboration Award from the Chordoma Foundation, EPA Scientific and Technological Achievement Award, the 2024 SOT Enhancement of Animal Welfare Award and the 2025 Mentoring Award from the WIT Special Interest Group of SOT.